Process for washing vials



March 5, 1957 H. c. HAGEDORN 2,784,120

PROCESS FOR WASHING VIALS 4 Sheets-Sneet 1 Original Filed April 7, 1953 INVENTOR. HRn/s-C'nmsnmvHnsspan/v,

HT 'OFIVEYS.

March 5, 1957 H. c. HAGEDORN PROCESS FOR WASHING VIALS Original Filed April 7, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. hnus Cmelsmw Hflasoou,

.HTTORIVEYS.

March 5, 1957 H. c. HAGEDORN 2,784,120

PROCESS FOR WASHING VIALS Original Filed April 7, 1953 4 Sheets-Sneet 3 m I 3 l INVENTOR. HHNSGiRlfiT/ANHHGEDORN,

HTTORNEYS.

March 5, 1957 H. C. HAGEDORN PROCESS FOR WASHING VIALS Original Filed April 7, 1953 4 Sheets-Sneet 4 INVENTOR. HHIVS C'nnlsrmlv HRGEDORN,

United Sttes PROCESS FOR WASHING VIALS Hans Christian Hagedorn, Gentofte, -to Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium,

a corporation of Denmark Denmark, assignor Gentofte, Denmark,

7 The present application is directed to the process, is a division of my co-pending parent application Serial No. 347,247, filed April 7, 1953, and was filed in response to a requirement for division by the Patent Ofiice in that parent application. The subject-matter claimed in that patent application is limited to a Machine for Washing Vials.

My invention relates to a process for washing vials.

Automatic machinery for the washing of bottles and vials is extensively used. Where a specially careful cleansing is desired, as for example when cleansing vials for medicinals to be injected into the human body, two or more different washing and rinsing liquids have sometimes been used successively; as by first rinsing with an alkaline solution, then with water, then with a dilute acid, and then again once or twice with water, generally at least once with distilled water.

One convenient and well-known way of obtaining these successive rinsings is to place the vial upside down over a liquid-discharging nozzle. This nozzle is then connected successively with supplies of the different rinsing liquids. While such a system is quite effective, it has a'number of disadvantages; among which are the large quantities required of the different liquids, and the complicated system of piping and valving required, all kept under suitable pressure.

It is the object of my invention to obtain cleansing ofthe vials more eificiently and more simply, and to eliminate or lessen disadvantages of previous systems.

' More specifically, it is the object of my invention to reduce the quantities of liquids used, to simplify the fluid connections, to eliminate largely or wholly the need for valves, to reduce the mixing of difierent liquids with one .another in the vials, and to increase the efliciency ofthe cleansing.

2 In carrying out these objects, I use injectors, instead of liquid-discharging nozzles. The vials to be cleansed are. placed 'upside down on upwardly-discharging injectors, from which a suitable gas, such as air, is discharged :under pressure into the upside-.down vials. The injectors pass successively over any desired number of open liquid-containers, and have suction hoses which intr'rrn dip into those containers successively in such passage, to draw in succession the liquids from the several containers and'discharge' such liquids separately from one another as fine sprays mixed with the moving air which lifts the liquids. This discharge of the liquids is in mists, consisting of minute droplets, by the action of compressed air;'and the droplets move rapidly over the insides of the vials, to form a thin film which is kept moving rapidly by the air and which is constantly and rapidly renewed. Desirably there are spaces between adjacent liquid-containers, and as the hoses pass through those spaces the injector action draws in air instead of liquid :and thus. empties the successive liquid supplyings.

injectors of liquid between 2,784,120 Patented Mar. 5," 19 57 Experiments have shown that in this way an efiective rinsing and cleansing is obtained, with much less consumption of liquid than when such liquid is discharged into the vials as continuous jets as in ordinary nozzles. By having the open containers, into which the suction hoses of the injectors dip successively, the elaborate piping and valving required in earlier systems is mad unnecessary.

The injectors may travel over the successive liquidcontainers in any desired manner, either constantly or intermittently. If moved with a constant speed the amounts of the several liquids supplied can be controlled by the widths of the several liquid containers. But in the preferred apparatus used in the process of the present application and shown in the accompanying drawings they are moved intermittently, and remain at rest for a while over each liquid container.

The injectors may be mounted in anyconvenientmanner for'travel over the containers, one desirable'way' being by mounting them on belts or chains.

comparatively low pressures may be used for the lifting,

air or other gas. For'instance, in cleansing 10 cc. vials, the air pressure ordinarily need not be more than two meters of water.

The accompanying drawings show a preferred apparatus used in the process of my present invention:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view, showingone injector moving over a plurality of liquid-containing tanks;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged central longitudinal section through one of the injectors, with its mounting on an air-supplying carrier;

Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section, on the line,

3-3 of Fig. 4,. through a multi-injector vial-washing machine having several air-supplying carriers. mounted on endless belts or chains and each carrying a plurality of injectors, and also having automatic vial-supplying andi vial-discharging mechanisms;

Fig. 4 is a plan, in partial section, of the vial-washing machine of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a transverse vertical section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged section, on the line 6-6 of Fig 4, of the mechanism for intermittently operating the injector-carrying chains;

Fig. 7 is a vertical section, on the line 7-7 of Figs. 3 and 4, of the mechanism for intermittently operating the vial-supplying belts; and

Fig. 8 is a vertical section, on the line 8-8 of Fig.4, of the mechanism for positioning an air-supplying injector-carrier in vial-receiving position.

In that preferred apparatus for carrying out the process as is clear from Figs. 1 and 2. The liquid pipe 3 P1'0-" jects through the injector-carrier 1, and at its intake end is provided with a trailing rubber tube or hose '4.

The machine has a number of liquid-containers 5,

' omitted from Fig. 4 to show the parts below them. There are any desired number of these liquid-containers-three are shown in diagrammatic Fig. 1, and six are shown;

in the machine of Fig. 3. These liquid-containers 5 are for the rinsing liquids to be used, such for instance as an alkaline liquid (such as dilute soda solution), water, a dilute acid. solution (such as hydrochloric acid in water), and water, in any desired order; the last of the series of containers usually contains distilled water. Between adjacent liquid-containers are spaces 6, as is clear from Figs.- l and 3.-

The scheme of action is clear from Fig. 1. Cornpressed air is supplied, desirably continuously, to each injector-carrier 1' as ittravels in succession over the various liquid-containers- 5, which may be ordinary long trays.- Aseach. injector-carrier moves, in the direction of the arrow in Figs. 1 and 3, the hoses 4 depending from. the injector it carries dip successively into the several trays 5, by a trailing action, and are clear of those trays as eachhos'e passes from one trayto the'next across the interveni'ngspace 6. While a hose 4 is dipping into a tray 5, the injector lifts the liquid from that tray and discharges it upward into a vial V placed upside down upon the injector, as is clear from Fig. 3. When in the movement of the injector-carrier a hose passes out of one tray 5 to the space 6 between that tray and the next, the supply ofliquid from the first tray is cut 01?, and the injector acts to draw in air from the space 6 and thus to empty the injector of any liquid remaining in it, and in large measure to blow adhering liquid out of the superposed vial. Thus when the hose 4 enters the next tray 5 its associated injector begins to draw up liquid from that tray and discharge it into the vial as a fine air-liquid mistwith little or no contamination from liquid in the preceding tray. This is continued for the several liquids used, until mists of liquids from all the trays have been supplied successively to the vials V.

The injector-carriers 1, in the machine of Figs. 3 to 8 inclusive, are mountedon two endless carrying chains 7, mounted on sprockets S and 9. The two sprockets 8 are the chain-driving sprockets, and are fixed to an intermittently operated chain-driving shaft while the two sprockets 9 are idler sprockets running on a shaft desirably provided with chain tighteners. The shaft 10 is intermittently operated by a pawl 12 co-operating with a ratchet-wheel 13 (Fig. 6) connected by gears 14 and 15 to the. chain-drivingshaft 10. The pawl 12 is mounted on a swinging pawl-arm 16, connected by a link 17 to an oscillating arm 18 spring-pressed. rightward by a spring 18' and having a roller 19 movable leftward by an eccentric 26 mounted on the main. operating shaft 42; which is driven in any convenient manner, as through the worm gearing shown, from a suitable source of power.

As the main shaft 42 turns, in each revolution the eccentric 2t pushes the arms 18 and 16 to the left against the spring 18' to turn the ratchet wheel 13 one step clockwise (Fig. 6), and alternately to permit such arms to be drawn to the right by that spring.

Each step of the ratchet-wheel movement. moves the chain 7 one step forward in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 3. This shifts the several injector-carriers lying overthe trays 5 forward from one tray to the next; so that the hoses t connected. with. those carriers may each move out of the tray they have been in to the adjacent space 6 to cause emptying. of the injectors, and then into the next tray. to start the supplying to the associated injectors of the liquid in that next tray.

The vials V to be washed are supplied to the several injectors while the latter are at rest in horizontal position on their way upward around the sprocket 8 at the right-hand end of the machine (Fig. 3). Each injector-carrier, as it reaches that'position, with the injectors it carries in horizontal position and facing to the right (Fig. 3) is stopped and temporarily held in that position by pawl 21.- This pawl is provided with a rectangular pin which enters a slit in the adjacent end of the injector carrying it, and which thus holds that particular injector-carrier stationary in a predetermined position with the injectors it carries horizontal, The

til)

pawl 21 is spring-pressed to locking position in engage-- ment with the injector-carrier 1, as shown in Fig. 8', but is movable out of that position by being attached to a swingable arm 22 which at its end has a roller 23 cooperating with a properly located face-cam 24 on the main shaft 42. The face-cam 24 is so positioned and proportioned that it holds the pawl 2 away from engagement: with any injector-carrier 1 while the eccentric is moving the ratchet-wheel 13, and therethrough mov ing the injector-carriers forward from one position to the next.

Compressed air is admitted to the injector-carriers 1. by rubber tubes 25', one for each injector-carrier. Each rubber tube 25 is connected at one end to its associated injector-carrier at a nipple provided at the-opposite end thereof from the end which co-operates with the pawl 21. All the rubber tubes 25 at their other ends cooperate with an air valve 26 (Figs. 4 and 5), having a gear 27 meshing with a gear 28 fixed to the-shaft on which the ratchet wheel 13 ismounted. Thus when: the ratchet mechanism. already described moves the ratchet wheel 13 it also moves the air valve 26 one stepforward, in the proper direction to match'the-movement of the chains 7 and the injector-carriers I mounted there; on. When there are 22 injector-carriers, as in Fig.3, one step forward of the air valve 26 is ,6 of a-revolution. The compressed air isadmitted continuously to those injector-carriers which are in upright position,. on. the'upper run of the chains 7 from the sprocket 8 tothe sprocket 9; but is preferably cut oil from those injectorcarriers during the lower run of the chain 7. To that end, the valve is made so that it only allows air to the injector-carriers during and near their upper.

run. The compressed air, from anysuitable source (Fig;

4), is supplied, under the control of a manual adjusting:

valve 29, through an axial passage in a fixed supporting stud 3d the end of which supports has fixedthereon, as: by a nut 32, a valve-plug 31, on which the hub of the" valve 26 can rotate. The axial passageway in the stud 3%) has a cross passage inside the valve-plug 31,. coon.

municating with a circumferential groove extending all. around the inside of that valve-plug, as is clear from Fig. 4; and that inner circumferential groove is. connected to a circumferentially extending slit 33 (Fig. 5:) provided on the. outside of the valve-plug 31 and extending only part way around the circumferenceof that. valve-plug-the upper part, about &9 to ofthe'cir-- cumference. The rotary air-valve 26 has 22 radial holes (one for each rubber tube 25' for each: injector-carrier l) and each of these radial holesreceives. air while it? lies over and so communicates with: the. partly circumferentials1it33, but receives no air at othertimes'. Each radial hole communicates with a nipple 34 projecting fror'n one face of the air valve 26. and carrying the other end of the rubber tube 25. Thus the rubber tubes 25am flexible connections between the radial holes in: the valve 26and the respective.injector-carriers'l, and change in shapeto accommodate the circular movementsof the. nipples 34 and the endless'chain'. movementiof: the nip pics 35.

The air valve 26 moves intermittently on: the valveplug 31; and is moved by the: same ratchet mechanism and at the same times that the injector-carriers:arecarried forward. i

The trays or liquid containers 5, which mayivaryin number according to the-numberof washing; operations desired, are carried on a support 36'; which is suitably supported, as by being fastened upon the" supporting stud 39. Each tray is connected by means: of azpipe. 37 to a reservoir of the liquid to be used inthat tray, If desired, standard constant-level mechanism may be. provided to maintain a constant'liquid leveLin' each tray;

, Each injector. starts sucking liquidfrom the tray: as .soon:

as its associated hose 4 enterstha tjtray, and: stops sucking liquid from that tray as soon as that rubber hose leaves it; and is instantly blown empty during the transport of its associated hose across the space 6 from one tray to the next.

The vials V to be washed are supplied to the injectors when the latter are in horizontal position at the right of the machine (Figs. 3, 4, and and are discharged into a suitable receiving chute at the left of the machine as the carriers pass slightly below the horizontal plane through the axis of the sprocket 9; as is clear from Fig. 3.

To feed the vials V to the injectors, the vials are placed on the injectors by a transport table. The vials are led to the injectors on the locked injector-carrier in receiving posi on by lying on endless rubber strings 38, two for each row of 'als being fed. There are as many such rows of vials be g fed as there are injectors on an injector-carrier-in this case 5; so that there are five pairs of rubber strings 38. These endless rubber strings are driven continuously in the direction of the arrow (Fig. 3); but carry the rows of vials forward only intermittently, sliding under such vials at other times. The vials being fed are held against feeding movement with the rubber strings during the times the injector-carriers are being moved from one position to the next, but allowed to move sufficiently forward to feed vials on to the injectors while the injectors are at rest. The rubber strings run on driving rollers 41 and 4-2 and a free running roller 43; the roller 42 being an extension of the main shaft of the machine. The rollers 41 and 42 are con nected by chain and sprocket wheels 44 of equal size, so that those two rollers move in the same direction at the same speed. Between those two rollers 41 and 42, and immediately under the vials V about to be fed on to the injectors in receiving position, is placed a supporting plate 45, against which such vials are pressed by brake levers 46, when they are to be held against forward movement while the injector-carriers are moving. The brake levers 46 are mounted free on an axle 47, and are formed in a shape (see Fig. 3) that each has an overhanging weight which presses its lower end against the vials and desirably in front of shoulders on those vials. The axle 47 has a lifting pin for each brake lever, for lifting that brake lever high enough to release the vial underneath and let that vial pass. The movement of the axle 47 to lift the brake levers and release the vials for feeding is produced by a crank arm 48 fast on the axle 47 and provided at its outer end with a roller 49 operated by an eccentric 54) on the main operating shaft 42 to rock the axle 47 and the braking levers 46, and thus to permit the forward feeding of the bottles on to the injectors in receiving position, when those injectors are being held in that position by the pawl 21.

The machine is controlled by the three cams 26, 24, and 50of which the first and third are eccentrics and the second a face-cam, all fixed on the main operating shaft 42. That main shaft 42 is driven from any suitable source of power through a power-receiving pulley connected to the main shaft 42 through a worm 52 and a power axle 53.

As many of the moving parts of the machine as possible are desirably placed inside a water-proof box, which may be of cast iron. The moving parts are led through tight bearings permitting the necessary rotating or reciprocating movements. The injector system is desirably enclosed, with the lower part of the enclosure forming a drain tray for catching the washing liquids; which drain-tray is provided with a suitable outlet, as to 8 sewer.

I claim as my invention:

1. The process of washing vials, which consists in discharging mixed liquid and gas as a mist from a moving nozzle into a moving vial held at upside-down position;

The process of washing vials, which consists in dis charging a mist from an injector int-o a vial held upside down, and substituting one liquid for another in said mist during said Washing operation.

3. The process of washing vials, which consists in discharging a mist from an injector into a vial held upside down, and supplying different liquids to said injector in the course of the washing operation.

4. The process of washing vials, which consists in discharging an injector into a vial held upside down, supplying different liquids to said injector in the course of the washing operation, and interrupting the supply of liquid and supplying gas instead between the supplyings of suc-' cessive liquids.

5. The process of washing vials, which consists in moving together over a liquid-containing tray a vial in draining position and an injector arranged to discharge into said vial, and discharging from said injector into said vial a mist produced by gas passing through said injector and sucking up liquid from said tray.

6. The process of washing vials, which consists in moving together over a plurality of liquid-containing trays successively a vial in draining position and an injector arranged to discharge into said vial, and discharging from said injector into said vial mists produced by gas passing through said injector and sucking up liquids from said trays successively.

7. The process of washing vials, which consists in moving an injector having a trailing liquid-intake tube over a liquid-containing tray into which said trailing liquid-intake tube dips in said movement, and passing gas through said injector to suck liquid through said liquid-intake tube from said tray and discharge it as a mist into a vial in draining position.

8. The process of washing vials, which consists in moving an injector having a trailing liquid-intake tube over a plurality of liquid-containing trays into which said trailing liquid-intake tube dips successively in said movement, and passing gas through said injector to suck liquids through said liquid-intake tube from said trays successively and discharge them as mists into a vial supported in draining position.

9. The process of washing vials, which consists in causing an injector to discharge a mist into a vial supported in draining position, and in the course of such discharging changing the nature of the liquid in the mist.

10. The process of washing vial-s, which consists in causing an injector to discharge a mist into a vial supported in draining position, and in the course of such discharging successively interrupting the supply of liquid to the injector and re-establishing the supply of liquid with a different liquid to change the nature of the mist.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 978,623 Nader Dec. 13, 1910 1,978,721 Perkins Oct. 30, 1934 2,201,080 Clark May 14, 1940 2,379,789 Cozzoli July 3, 1945 2,431,988 Cozzoli Dec. 2, 1947 2,619,976 Jorigian Dec. 2, 1952 

1. THE PROCESS OF WASHING VIALS, WHICH CONSISTS IN DISCHARGING MIXED LIQUID AND GAS AS A MIST FROM A MOVING NOZZLE INTO A MOVING VIAL HELD AT UPSIDE-DOWN POSITION. 